69. Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles and the American science-fiction tradition. Bradbarian style, idealism and cynicism, love and misanthropy, the Cold War context.
The Martian Chronicles is a 1950 science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury that chronicles the colonization of Mars by humans fleeing from a troubled Earth, and the conflict between aboriginal Martians and the new colonists. The book lies somewhere between a short story collection and an episodic novel, containing Bradbury stories originally published in the late 1940s in science fiction magazines.
Summary
A Martian woman has dreams of a rocket coming down from the sky, containing a light-skinned, blue-eyed creature named Nathaniel York. Her husband is weary, and when the rocket lands, he shoots the men. All over Mars, people begin to hum Earth tunes and have strange dreams. When a second rocket lands, the astronauts get out and explore. They say they are from Earth, but everyone thinks they are crazy people who have hallucinated their rocket. Thus, they are all shot by a psychologist. Meanwhile, on Earth, a crazed taxpayer tries to board the third rocket to Mars, but he is denied. When it lands, the astronauts find themselves in an ideal small American town. They meet their dead relatives and split up to have dinner with lost parents and brothers. Captain John Black goes to bed next to his long-lost brother, only to realize that it is probably all a Martian trap. His "brother" kills him before he can leave the room.
A year later, a fourth expedition lands, and it is successful. Almost all the Martians have died of chicken pox, apparently acquired from one of the previous expeditions. Captain Wilder lets his men drink and dance, but this angers the archaeologist in the crew, Jeff Spender. Spender feels humbled by the great Martian civilization and wants the rest of the crew to be dignified. He goes crazy and tries to kill the crew; Wilder reasons with him and is somewhat sympathetic, but finally has to shoot him.
Settlers begin to arrive on Mars, drawn by the promise of work. Benjamin Driscoll's job is to plant trees. One morning, after it finally rains, he turns around and sees that the once-barren landscape is now covered with green. Another settler, Toma's Gomez, experiences an even stranger event when, in the middle of nowhere, he runs into a Martian. They cannot touch each other, seeming to exist on different time-planes.
The first settlers are rough, but they build churches in little shantytowns just like American towns. Sometimes, their children sneak off to Martian ruins, where countless carcasses are still being cleaned up. They play songs on the Martian bones. Back on Earth, all the Negroes in the American South have banded together to emigrate to Mars. As they walk in an exit parade through one city, a racist white man, Mr. Teece, tries to stop them, but they band together to pay all debts. The racist man weeps and feels lost without them.
Back on Mars, a man named William Stendahl has constructed a recreation of the House of Usher. He is bitter that the government has made tales of fantasy illegal. He invites the top politicians responsible for this to a party, at which they are systematically killed.
Mars is eventually flooded with retirees. One couple misses their dead son, until one day Tom shows up on their porch. He is actually a Martian who changes shape according to the desires of those around him, and when he goes to town, many people fight over him, each thinking him to be a different person.
News comes from Earth that atomic war is imminent. Sam Parkhill, a man from Captain Wilder's expedition, is proud of the hot dog stand he has just opened. Suddenly, some Martians approach him, but he kills them. Finally, he is subdued. They hand over to him their deeds for half of Mars. He is bewildered, until later that night, when he sees Earth burst into flame. All over Mars, people watch, and a radio signal comes to Mars with the words "Come Home." Everyone evacuates. One man, named Walter Gripp, who lives in the mountains, is left behind. He searches desperately for a woman to keep him company, but when he finds Genevieve Selsor, she is disgusting.
Twenty years pass, with Hathaway living with his family in a shack on Mars, waiting for a rescue. Finally, a rocket lands. It is Captain Wilder, back from exploring Jupiter and Pluto. He doesn't understand why Hathaway's family has not aged, and as Hathaway suddenly dies of a heart attack, he realizes that they are robots.
Back on Earth, a fully automated house is dying. Its occupants died long ago, in the nuclear war, but the house kept washing and playing music every day. A falling tree bough catches it on fire. On Mars, a family has escaped the wasteland of Earth. Dad tells his sons that they are Martians now. Soon another family will arrive, with girls. Dad is happy to have left the foolishness of Earth.
Analysis
The Martian Chronicles is a very fragmentary book. Many of its stories were written to stand alone. Therefore, any analysis of the book should first state what the novel manages to achieve as a whole. Obviously, it is a fictional account of the colonization of Mars. NASA repeatedly sends teams to explore; finally, one of them is successful. What follows is rampant settlement, much like Westward Expansion in American History. Some are looking for escape from civilization, but most only want to bring civilization to Mars--American civilization, that is. Finally, atomic war breaks out on Earth, and so all the humans go home. A few humans flee the war and head to Mars; when they get there, they don't make the mistake of trying to recreate American civilization. They have seen that the result of Earth civilization was war, so they burn their maps of Earth and decide to become Martians. Bradbury's message is that some types of colonization are right and others are wrong. Trying to replicate the old civilization is wrong, but appreciating the civilization you have found is right.
Beside this warning against reckless exploration and expansion, Bradbury is also simply writing a story about the American Dream of the frontier. He writes exciting tales about the dangers the first explorers face, and one is reminded of cowboys and Indians. He writes about the loneliness of the frontier, about how different people approach the idea of a new landscape. He shows how the American Dream can lead to misunderstandings and waste, and he shows the diversity of that dream, in disaffected literati like Stendahl, in oppressed Negroes like Silly, in rowdy young men like Sam Parkhill.
There are no major characters in The Martian Chronicles, and its plot, as stated above, does not move steadily from story to story. Why, then, is the novel so famous? First, it was a function of the novel's crossover appeal--it was a science-fiction novel that non-sci-fi fans could enjoy. Second, it is a very poetic novel. Whether you think the "poetry" is good or bad, it cannot be denied that, for a novel about outer space, Bradbury pays an extraordinary amount of attention to physical beauty, to familial ties, and to eerie, chilling atmospheres.
+ очень хороший кусок на русском – про стиль и тематику произведений! Думаю, никому труда не составит это при ответе сказать по-английски.
Произведения Брэдбери в большинстве своём — это короткие рассказы, не развлекательного характера, содержащие короткие зарисовки, сводящиеся к остродраматическим, психологическим моментам, построенные в основном на диалогах, монологах, размышлениях героев, нежели на действии. Несмотря на явный талант к придумыванию различных сюжетов, зачастую занимательных и оригинальных, писатель часто ограничивается бессюжетными зарисовками, очень метафоричными, полными скрытого смысла или же не несущими определённой смысловой нагрузки вообще. И даже в хорошо «скроенных» произведениях Брэдбери может легко оборвать повествование, уйти от подробностей, оставив действие в момент острого накала страстей. Также практически ни в одном произведении писателя не удастся уличить в морализаторстве и навязывании своей точки зрения: в 99 % произведений автор остаётся «за кадром». Ситуация может развиваться сколь угодно пристрастно, но никогда Брэдбери не приведёт читателя к выводу. Словно бы он видит свою задачу в том, чтобы взволновать читателя, обострить ситуацию и уйти, оставив его размышлять за книгой.
И если от иных своих творческих принципов Брэдбери и отходил, то его «язык», то есть способы изложения образов, мыслей, практически никогда не менялся. Характерные черты его языка — это «акварельность», минимум деталей, описаний, подробностей, действий. Имеет место даже не сколько фантастичность, (отсутствие реалистичности), сколько пренебрежение значением правдоподобия. Эта черта касается и сюжетов (фантастичность легко уживается со сказочностью, детектив с мелодрамой, сметая рамки жанров), и языка: Брэдбери пренебрегает описаниями мест действий, внешности героев, именами, датами, цифрами. Естественно, в его произведениях не встретить технических подробностей и полное отсутствие вымысла в технической сфере. По аналогии с живописью — живопись импрессионистов — (состояние, движение, а не сюжет!). По аналогии с музыкой — Pink Floyd (особенно раннее творчество), где неясность текстов с лихвой компенсировалась выразительностью, экспрессивностью, музыки и обилием звуковых эффектов, в том числе конкретных шумов.
Соответственно, не возводя сюжетную основу в абсолют, Брэдбери легко меняет стили и жанры своих произведений. В рассказах одного и того же года написания легко можно встретить и фантастику, и мелодраму, и детектив, и фэнтези, исторические зарисовки, стихи и прочее.
Насколько можно судить по эссе и интервью, Брэдбери проповедует литературу чувств, а не мыслей. Эмоций, а не действий. Состояний, а не событий.
Брэдбери ратует за духовные ценности и прежде всего за фантазию, творчество. Едва ли не высшей ценностью Брэдбери объявляет внутренний мир человека, его мировоззрение, фантазию. Способность человека чувствовать, сопереживать писатель признаёт главным качеством. В своих произведениях сочувствует прежде всего людям искусства (и даже больше его ценителям), нежели всем прочим. Зачастую при этом на страницах своих книг Брэдбери жестоко расправляется с «врагами» — чёрствыми людьми, лишёнными фантазии, мещанами, чиновниками, политиками — теми, кто препятствует нормальной жизни творческих людей, самовыражению, общению, кто сводит культуру к условностям, массовости, стандартизации, делает жизнь сухой, скучной, духовно бедной, пресной. (в повести «Марсианские хроники» (глава «Эшер II») главный герой с болью и надрывом описывает сжигание книг, но потом хладнокровно убивает с десяток живых людей, при этом обставляя убийства с завидной фантазией, по книгам Эдгара По…
Своеобразно Брэдбери решает и этические проблемы: зло и насилие в его книгах предстают нереальными, «понарошными». Как некие «тёмные силы», лучший способ борьбы с которыми — их игнорирование, обыгрывание, уход в другую плоскость восприятия. Очень ярко эта позиция нашла отражение в романе «Надвигается беда», где в финале главные герои побеждают «тёмный карнавал» нечисти балаганным весельем.
In the 1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union were pitted against each other in a Cold War. In an effort to become the first to explore outer space, the two countries fought to bring out new and innovative technologies resulting in what was termed the "Space Race." With both superpowers hoping to land on the moon, send humans to outer space, and resolve unanswered questions about life outside of Earth, people across the world became fascinated with everything related to space travel and alien life forms.
Although Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles was published in 1950, several years before the inception of the Space Race, the book serves as a literary benchmark for the exponential growth of technology during that time in our world's history and the potentially damaging effects of the Space Race and the Cold War on society.
The book in itself is unlike typical novels. Rather than focusing on main characters and a concrete plot, Bradbury's chapters are similar to short stories, standing alone but linked to one common theme: the colonization of Mars.
Bradbury's book, however, has several distinct underlying themes that have nothing to do with Mars, and everything to do with the United States' history and its future. Similar to the American colonization of the western frontier in the early nineteenth century, Bradbury's characters set out to explore the unknown. As he describes repeated attempts by NASA to send teams of astronauts to explore the uncharted Martian territories, Bradbury creates thrilling passages on explorations of the unknown and focuses on the different ways individuals view the idea of new lands.
After the outbreak of war on Earth, one of the missions in Bradbury's book is successful in establishing a settlement on Mars. As a result the inhabitants are torn between establishing a new form of society, forgoing all memories of their former planet or simply continuing their way of life.
Overall, The Martian Chronicles is much more than fictional accounts recording the fictitious colonization of Mars. Bradbury's exploration of the effects of colonization and war undoubtedly hit close to home during the book's publication. However, in light of the current political situation overseas in Iraq, it is clear to see how this book has continued to make an impact not only on science-fiction lovers but on mainstream readers as well.